Cabbages get everywhere, from the tiny hairy bittercress in your flowerbeds, to the yellow rape blanketing the countryside in summer, to the mustard leaves in your salad. Here on the beach…
Read moreDay 244: sea kale and rose hips
It takes a hardy character to withstand the harsh conditions by the coast – thin soils, fierce sun and constant buffeting by salt-laden winds, but nature is nothing if not inventive and many plants are perfectly adapted to this situation…
Read moreDay 98: sea kale
It appears most unlikely that anything as lush and floriferous as sea kale (Crambe maratima) could grow on the shingle shores of Dungeness, but it seems to like it here…
Read moreThe longest day
Red poppies, deep pink valerian and the blue of vipers bugloss against golden grasses |
Prospect Cottage |
Today we don’t even walk as far as the cottage; parking by the only pub under the shadow of the power station we take the boardwalk to the beach, past the spiralling concrete of the new lighthouse, across the stretch of sea-rounded pebbles, dotted with tough grasses and sea kale Crambe maritima, to find the deep blue-grey sea crashing against the shingle ridges high up the beach. We have yet to experience low tide at Dungeness, or a sunset for that matter, both of which are rumoured to be worth the drive alone. But today is the longest day, the tide is high and sunset is many hours away. We’ll be back another day.
The vivid cornflower blue of Echium vulgare, Vipers Bugloss |